


Edge of Doom

by orphan_account



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), F/M, Minor Bucky Barnes/Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-05-15
Packaged: 2019-05-07 04:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14663217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Vision glances over to Wanda, sees the shadows under her eyes and the tangles in her hair and thinks, is this love?Note: I wrote this right after civil war, way before I saw infinity war but there may be unintentional spoilers. In this world, I imagined the two sides reconciled a while after the end of civil war and worked together in Wakanda.





	Edge of Doom

Vision has a feeling that Wanda may be a little lost in the palace.

She’s been here much longer than he has, but she treads so carefully through the corridors. It's as if she thinks the whole place will shatter if she puts a foot wrong. She keeps herself small, contained.

It's not that he thinks she's unhappy. Oh no, she talks and eats and laughs with the rest of them (although there's been substantially less laughing as of late). She isn’t reclusive as she was after her brother died, she doesn't seem angry, she doesn't have nightmares as often as she used to. Although, his research suggests they still come more frequently than the average adult human, but she’s not alone in that.

Their little group is something of a statistical anomaly. He doesn’t mean to eavesdrop, but he can often hear Steve whispering soothing words to Bucky after he awakens from such a dream, shouting and sweating. He’s had so many meetings with Natasha after 3 AM that he no longer asks why she's up so late. Sometimes, if it's been a particularly bad day, she stays up and plays chess with him. Last night, she came very close to beating him.

Vision can feel when Wanda has a nightmare, she reaches for him with her mind. Although he cannot see what images her brain is torturing her with, there’s a sudden and unexplained panic that settles over him. He rushes to her side without another thought, where she uses his mind, a calm presence, to soothe her frantic mind.

No, Wanda isn’t unhappy, but she doesn’t belong here.

Wanda wears nine rings on her fingers, each one significant, each one chosen with care. Back at the compound, she moved her bedside lamp to the floor to make way for the many family pictures she wanted to display. She keeps a small, handmade, Sokovian doll in a carved wooden box with various other trinkets from her birthplace.

Wanda values imperfections and meaning and chaos, which is perhaps why she seems so out of place here, where everything is so ordered and efficient.

-

The people in the palace have been nothing but welcoming, and the whole team is beyond grateful, but Vision can tell that they're wary. The team are no longer safe in New York, but their stay here puts Wakanda in direct danger.

Which is why they can't stay much longer.

T’challa wouldn’t make them leave unless the threat to his people was immediate, but there’s an unspoken feeling that their time here is coming to an end. Still, they do everything they can to prepare.

They train every day. They’re provided with equipment, simulations and anything else T’challa can think of that might help. Today they're resting their bodies, but their minds never stop. Tony and Scott are sleeping, Thor and Banner are in the lab while the remaining nine of them gather in a plush living room.

There are more than enough seats for each of them, it is a palace after all, but they all cram onto two small couches. Natasha perches on the back of one of them, behind Clint and Sam, while Steve sits on the end with Bucky on the arm beside him. Wanda, Vision and Rhodey sit on the other couch, with Wanda curled into the arm, her feet pressing against Vision’s thigh.

T’challa favours standing, pacing every so often before coming to lean against the back of the couch again.

The light from the fire bathes them in a soft gold, and every so often Vision glances over to Wanda, sees the shadows under her eyes and the tangles in her hair and thinks, _is this love?_

It doesn’t shock him anymore, there’s been a lot of time to turn the question over in his mind since it first manifested itself. Wanda laughs at whatever Natasha says and something warms Visions chest from the inside out. That happens a lot, so often that he’s no longer sure whether it’s their shared empathic connection or his own affection. There’s always a comforting sort of hum of her, like she’s looped her magic around the circuitry behind his forehead and refuses to let go. He smiles, wondering how he could possibly _not_ love her when he knows her so well, when she’s so deep-rooted in his very being.

“Vision? Are you with us?”

His eyes flit over to Steve, a sombre look tugging at his features. That particular expression seems to have taken permanent residence on his face, seeming only to leave when Sam tries to make him laugh again.

“I’m sorry, could you repeat that?”

Steve’s mouth curls up into a smile as he looks between Vision and Wanda, but it’s only fleeting.

“I said we need to be prepared. We have something that Thanos wants, and he’ll stop at nothing to get it.”

He looks agonisingly apologetic as he says it, as if it’s his fault a mad titan wants to rip his life-source from his forehead. Vision nods. It’s been an unspoken truth ever since he arrived that at some point Thanos would come to take the stone. No one has mentioned it, yet Vision has been harbouring significant guilt about the fact that he is the one endangering the lives of others simply by existing. Wanda and Steve have both shushed him every time he’s tried to call attention to it, but the feeling has festered. The thought of his friends dying trying to protect him is almost unbearable.

Of course, he’s not so self-centred to think that they’d be fighting only to protect him, Thanos obtaining the mind stone could mean the end of the universe. But it still gnaws at him, when he’s wondering the halls with nothing but his thoughts for company.

“You’re saying he’ll come for me.”

It's not meant as an accusation, but the room stills, the only sound crackling from the remnants of the fire as the wood burns out. Most of them turn to Steve for guidance, but Natasha looks to Wanda as she slides a tender hand over his. A smile plays on her lips when she shrugs, and there’s uncertainty and fear clouding her mind, but she says with conviction, “We would protect you.”

He laughs softly, the sound too loud in the stark silence of the room. It’s everyone else’s cue to begin chatting amongst themselves again, although Steve’s worried expression doesn’t leave his face until Bucky squeezes his shoulder. Vision takes Wanda’s hand, lifting it to his lips and pressing a kiss to her palm.

As Wanda manœuvres herself to rest her head against his shoulder, he thinks to himself, _of course this is love._

**Author's Note:**

> title is taken from sonnet 116 (please read if you haven't already, it's kind of fitting)


End file.
